NEED FOR INNOVATIONS IN THE CURRENT SCENARIO

Introduction

In recent decades, innovation has been the most essential strategy to address key risks and challenges. It has also brought enormous changes and improvements to the society we live in, and it is critical to society's growth since it solves issues and strengthens society's ability to act. The root of society's overall development is scientific and technical innovation. Scientific and technological advancements have proven to be the engines of modernity and one of the most significant contributors in societal growth and development throughout history. Science and technology have primarily propelled the transition from agrarian civilization to industrial society and information society. During the 1980s, most of the third-world agriculture saw upheavals and reversals in research and extension. The backdrop was set by a low rate of agricultural innovation uptake, particularly in resource-poor and isolated locations. It was also clear and acknowledged that regions with marginal environments in general, and resource-poor farm families in particular, had been underserved by agricultural research and extension in comparison to resource-rich households in well-endowed regions. This could be due to the disparity in scenario between research stations and farm reality (particularly for resource-poor farmers), as well as the top-down imposition of technologies, which often undermines farmers' ability to experiment and innovate.

This observation leads to two major intertwined issues: first, the dearth of response time of agricultural research and extension at farm-level goals and requirements, and second, the latent opportunities of farmer exploration, as well as its demand for structural reforms in research and extension.

Need for innovation

There is no way to make the Indian development process more inclusive without capitalizing on the creative and imaginative initiatives carried out by ordinary people in villages and semi-urban areas. Many of these trials result in the creation of inventions that may boost productivity and create jobs. However, a specific innovator's goal may be to fix just their own issue. There is no way for him to share his knowledge, creativity, or practice with individuals in other parts of the world. Ideas and inventions are sometimes spread via word of mouth. However, these notions are often localized. Potential growth and social development are restrained as a result of this process. To address this limitation, the current inquiry was launched to explore, record, and examine unassisted inventions from our country's informal sector. "Innovation is often viewed as the vital blood of company survival and growth." Innovation is regarded to have a fundamental role in producing value and maintaining competitive advantage. Bessant et al. (2005) on the importance of innovation in renewal and growth underline, "Innovation represents the core renewal process in any organization. Unless it alters what it provides the world and the method in which it generates and distributes those services it threatens its survival and development prospects”. The relevance of innovation is not exclusive to corporate entities.

Innovation improves the extent to which a firm runs and broadens the knowledge and skills of its people, which are the most vital resources for staying competitive. Furthermore, when the organization develops and grows, the organization's competitiveness shifts from conventional aspects to operational capabilities, which is one of the significant consequences of innovation.

Invention v/s Innovation

We tend to use the phrases invention and innovation interchangeably in everyday conversation. However, the focus is different. A new thing, procedure, or approach is an invention. New ideas, new technology, or unique uses of existing technologies, new processes or institutions, or, more broadly, new methods of doing things in a place or by people where they have never been done before, are all examples of innovation.

What characteristics enable inventions to spread? Most other theories of change take a drastically different approach to diffusion of Innovations. Rather than concentrating on convincing people to change, it views change as largely involving the development or "reinvention" of goods and behaviors to meet the requirements of individuals and communities better. It is the inventions, not the people, who change in Diffusion of Innovations.

Attributes of innovation

What makes some inventions spread faster than others? And why do some people fail? The success of an invention is determined by five features or attributes, according to diffusion researchers:

• Relative advantage: This is the degree to which an invention is viewed as superior to the notion it replaces by a particular set of users, as assessed in qualities that are important to those users, such as economic benefit, social status, convenience, or satisfaction. The bigger an innovation's apparent relative benefit, the faster it is likely to be adopted. There are no hard and fast guidelines for determining what constitutes "relative advantage." It is determined by the user group's specific views and requirements.
• Compatibility with current values and practices: the degree to which an innovation is regarded as compatible with prospective adopters' values, previous experiences, and requirements. A concept that is incompatible with their beliefs, conventions, or practices will not be accepted as quickly as a suitable one.
• Complexity: The degree to which an invention is seen as difficult to learn and utilize is measured by its simplicity and ease of usage. Simpler-to-understand new concepts are accepted more quickly than innovations that need the user to learn new skills and understandings.
• Trialability: The extent to which users can test an idea on a small scale. A trialable invention provides less uncertainty to the person evaluating it.
• Observability: The more easily people can observe the consequences of an invention, the more likely they are to embrace it. Visible outcomes reduce ambiguity and increase peer discussion of a new concept, since friends and neighbors of an adopter often inquire about it. Innovation is a style of thinking, a system, a technique, and a process that needs good decision-making and methodical management to succeed. Innovation systems and routes are often used to encourage modern innovation. In general, the major goal of innovation is to make people's lives better. When it comes to running a company, innovation is essential for development. Innovation systems and routes are often used to encourage modern innovation. Science, both basic and applied, may bring about alterations in the way we produce and access food, from the use of ecological knowledge to boost the resilience of agricultural systems to the revolution in biotechnology enabled by the discovery of DNA. We also know that investing in research and development enhances agricultural output while also reducing poverty. We need essential technologies that can break down numerous hurdles to achieving a smart future. We already have a broad range of new technologies and convergence techniques at our disposal to help us overcome many of the obstacles to a smart future. Big data and smart analytics, IoT and networked intelligent sensors, devices and robots that can learn and share information for decision support, smart biochips and gene editing to eliminate diseases, artificial intelligence and self-learning machines for pattern recognition to predict future states, and similar technologies are having a wider scope for the in the present. However, such technical instruments will not be enough to overcome the numerous problems that lie ahead. To deal with complicated and confusing soft difficulties, we also require a lot of social, psychological, and management study results.
• Conclusion While our invention efforts may not be strong enough to change the planet, we should concentrate on improving the things that we can influence. Small steps lead to more extensive and better ideas, which might one day become revolutionary. However, we must discover methods to enhance our own area of influence in the interim. Because there are so many approaches to innovation, getting started is sometimes the most challenging aspect. Our strategy is to focus on both personal and professional development simultaneously. However, we should begin small and narrow our focus since it is difficult to do everything at once.

References:

• Baregheh, A., Rowley, J., & Sambrook, S. (2009). Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management decision.
• Bessant, J., Lamming, R., Noke, H., & Phillips, W. (2005). Managing innovation beyond the steady state. Technovation, 25(12), 1366-1376.
• Juma, C., Tabo, R., Wilson, K., & Conway, G. (2013). Innovation for sustainable intensification in Africa. London: The Montpellier Panel, Agriculture for Impact.
• Rogers, E. M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.
• Shetty, P. K., Manorama, K., Murugan, M., & Hiremath, M. B. (2014). Innovations that Shaped Indian Agriculture-then and now. Indian J Sci Technol, 7(8) ,1176-1182.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jaizen Kuriakose

M.Sc. Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture,Vellanikkara,
Thrissur, Kerala

Corresponding author email: jaizenkuriakose@gmail.com